Game Description: Renowned for their technical excellence, artistic craftsmanship and commitment to quality, Crytek is building Crysis 2 on their new state-of-the-art multiplatform game development solution CryEngine 3 for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system, the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system, and the PC.

Crysis 2 PS3 Multiplayer Hands-On Preview

In an effort to generate some last minute anticipation for Crytek's high-powered, tech-tastic shooter Crysis 2, Electronic Arts gave a bunch of media folk, myself included, the chance to (finally) check out the PlayStation 3 version of the forthcoming sequel this week during GDC 2011.

The showcase event included both the standard version as well as the 3D version of the game, three modes and three maps. The waterfront-based Pier 17 is currently playable in the Xbox 360 and PC demos, but we also saw two new maps: Sanctuary and Lighthouse.

Sanctuary is set around an old, stone church and its surrounding courtyards.For this map, we played Team Instant Action, aka team deathmatch. There are lots of high places for snipers to hide out (not just the bell tower), and the layout has a nice mix of open areas and close quarters. The open areas are particularly tricky, because there are a lot of objects obstructing your view and, more importantly, your bullets. This really forces you to be more selective with your shots, since trying to hit an enemy at a distance will lead to a lot of wasted bullets, and, most likely, your untimely death since you would have given away your position.

Lighthouse is a very claustrophobic map set on a narrow, rocky peninsula. We played Capture the Cell (CTF with a power cell in place of a flag) on this map, and because of the layout, it led to some of the most exciting showdowns of the entire hands-on session. A big reason is that there are character-tall bushes lining the shorelines and scattered around the map. So there are tons of places for people to hide and pick you off. Or, at the very least, scare the hell out of you by jumping out of the bushes just as you pass by.

The third, newly revealed mode on display was Assault. In this mode, one team has only their nanosuits and pistols, while the opposing team has no suits but all the high powered weaponry they could want. Also, everyone has just one life per round, so, as you can imagine, this mode will result in many a heart-pounding match. It also is a great way to keep the game feeling fresh, without completely stripping away features simply for the sake of it. Plus, it teaches you how to maximize your nanosuit’s capabilities, a valuable skill that can then be applied to the rest of multiplayer and the single-player campaign as well.

On the control side, there isn't much to report. I'm not really a fan of the PS3 controller for shooters, but it actually fits well with Crysis 2's weightier, less recoil-y feel. I only played a couple matches, and the competition was decent, but I didn't have any problems (and actually ranked first a few times, which is something that only ever happens at press events, but it still makes me happy).

Visually, the game ran flawlessly, but I couldn't help thinking that some of the textures were a little dull for some reason. It might have been the TVs, because I noticed the text on the menu screens had a little ghosting going on too, so that could explain it. Don't get me wrong. The game is a stunner, but it was just something I noticed.

The 3D is decent, except (again, it might have been the TVs), the reticle showed up as if there were two of them overlapping, instead of a single crosshair in the center of the screen. I know nothing about 3D tech, so that might be how it supposed to look, or the glasses could have been defective. I don't know. I'll hold off being too critical until I can see it running back in our offices on our own equipment.

I really do feel for the PC gamers out there. Seems like your demo got the shaft. The only thing I noticed wrong with the PC demo was I could kinda see my character animating erratically in front of me, but I'm blaming my four year old PC on that one.

At any rate, ad I've been saying. I played the PC demo, then the 360 one. I was still just as happy with how it looked on the 360. Gonna try the PS3 one and see if there's any difference tech wise.

Crysis 2 is trying to be like Halo and CoD but it fails at being extremely balanced with all the high tech like in Halo and fails at fast action in CoD. Every match I have played it usually contains so many people hiding and stealthing around with their invisiblity. The only time the action picks up is when someone has a UAV. The things that just bug me about this game is how people lag die all the time and when you are facing more than 1 person its really annoying because it makes you waste more time and ammo on someone that doesn't even need it. (I always have 3 bar connection and even on my good host it still had lag deaths) Another thing that really bugs me is the overpowerness of 1 shot head shots with any weapon. People cloak camp more than cloak infiltrate which is annoying. The fact you have to pick up the dog tags of the people you kill to get Killstreaks is really annoying especially if you're a sniper you will never get Killstreaks. Oh and the fact that everything is so quiet you can't sound whore which is stupid because they have a suit upgrade that makes your footsteps quiet and you really can't hear them unless they are really close to you. Also the fact that sometimes people will just eat bullets. And the one thing out of the two that bugs me the most is when your getting shot at it doesn't feel like you're getting shot at so sometimes you'll just fall over and die and go wtf how did I just die. And the other is in CoD I like how I can tell how my gun will recoil and how many shots it will take to kill someone so I know when to move onto the next person in fast action. In this game it doesn't have that reliability which causes you to die alot.I really loved the nanosuits and their abilities and running across the terrain super fast and easily it was exciting. But when you entered the combat part of the game it really lacked. I really wanted to love this game because I am tired of MW2 but it just didn't do it justice. I am a hardcore shooter person though so people who are casual shooter players or play for fun would enjoy this game. But I play to win and for competition and it doesn't have the balance and relability that's needed to have a good fair game.

Not sure I'd call that "so many problems," as I've never had issues logging in with gamespy (and it was nice to be able to log into the same account I used for Crysis in its sequel), consoles won't even get DX11 EVER, and they seem to do ok, and it's nice to think it will come (though I'm not sure where you determined that it's not coming, but the best that's out there is mere speculation and rumor), and the start button makes plenty of sense given that the game supports the 360 controller so cleanly (plus that affords us a potential new internet meme "press the start button key." no? damn...)

I can wholeheartedly agree that lag (with servers) was an issue, but it's hard to say if that's, you know, that many thousand mile expanse between here and all the servers, so yea. Headsets and friends not working, those are big problems, but playing "nearly exactly like COD?" WTF? What super hacked version of COD are you playing? COD feels like a damn arcade classic game to this title, unless you mean the points and perks and whatnots, which can all be attributed to standarization in a genre. That's like saying an MMO is like WoW because it has quests and mobs and bosses. DUH - IT'S AN MMO.

hmm lets see. it uses gamespy, so theres the usual login issues with that. login issues with Mycrysis as well. games refuse to start even with full lobby. game not shipping with DX 11 support. Lag, gameplay nearly exactly like COD (which wouldnt be terrible if that was the only issue), sound not working with headsets. and then theres the "press start button to begin" right at the beginning. which seems like a small issue, but is a big insult to most PC gamers and a clear indication at the lack attention they have given the PC version.

the PC is filled with so many problems i'll be surprised if it sells well. i have yet to read any good reviews of this game. G4 seems to be going light on it, probably waiting until their full review which i expect to be 3/5